SEVENTH-GRADER WINS TITLE IN SECOND TRY

Speller Dominique Raymundo moves on to county bee

Dominique Raymundo was a self-confessed “newbie to spelling” when she took part in the Murrieta Valley Unified School District spelling bee for the first time last year.

The Dorothy McElhinney Middle School seventh-grader proved she’s a very quick study.

Dominique outlasted 28 other superior spellers in the fourth through eighth grades to win the district title Wednesday night at Thompson Middle School.

Later, as she held the first-place trophy and an oversized check for $100 representing the gift certificate she won to Barnes & Noble, Dominique, 12, admitted that standing in front of people she doesn’t know makes her nervous.

“But since it’s my second year (in) the spelling bee,” she said, “I tried to overcome my fear and think nobody was there. And then I just told myself, ‘I can do it.’”

Dominique will represent the district in the Riverside County Spelling Bee on March 20 at the Moreno Valley Conference and Recreation Center.

A year ago, Murrieta’s district champion, Shruti Amin, went all the way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Md. Amin was in the audience on Wednesday night, observing her protege, Olivia Landis, a sixth-grader at Thompson, who was the runner-up. Olivia, 11, will be Dominique’s alternate for the county bee.

Olivia said she and Shruti would study together on Skype every night.

“It was awesome,” Olivia said. “I mean, she knew what to do. Yeah, I would be pretty lost without her.

“She would find random, difficult words, and just quiz me on them.”

Olivia was competing in the district bee for the first time.

A year ago in her first swing at it, Dominique was cut down by the word “scythe,” and finished third.

This year, she made it through “unforeseeable,” “windily,” “futon,” “shogun,” “wiseacre,” “elixir,” “aristocracy,” “samaritan” and “synopsis” with barely a ripple of concern.

Asked whether she ever was nervous on the stage, she said, “No, not at all.”

In the final round, the 12th of the competition, Dominique spelled “pacifism” with little resistance, while Olivia was floored by “wainscot.”

“She did really well,” said Shruti, who won the three previous district spelling bees. “Much better than I did my first year. She’s really getting it. She’s going to go really far.”

Tovashal Elementary School fifth-grader Trevor Reese, 10, placed third. He appeared to be eliminated from the competition in the fifth round when he misspelled “bequeath,” but a challenge was raised and upheld by the judges.

He returned and made it through five more rounds to edge out Thai Le as the top elementary school finisher. Thai, of Alta Murrieta Elementary School, took fourth.